Blanket

Purple, plush, silky soft, and with star-studded embroidery, Michelle snuggles in bed with her beloved blanket. Midway through her mother’s bedtime story, Michelle quickly gives in to sleep, heavy eyelids no longer able to stay open. After a quick kiss on the forehead and a tuck, all is quiet for most of the night until the clock strikes twelve. That’s when the nightlights in the room suddenly flicker at the sounds of low growls rumbling from the closet. Its door slowly creaks open with a chilling breeze, alerting Michelle awake. Wide-eyed, she watches an elongated hand outstretch from the shadows of the dark closet. The monstrous claws grip the corner of the door and open it wider.

Michelle ducks down under the comforts of her blanket. Its stars begin to vibrate with growing warmth until the entire blanket is glowing bright with light. The room slightly trembles under the monster’s approaching footsteps. It reaches her bed and starts to shake it under its agitated clutches. Then one hand reaches for the blanket and is instantly singed by the touch from the beaming light.

The monster winces in pain and immediately retreats back to the closet, slamming the door shut behind it. The blanket’s glow simmers from a pulsating vibration to a soft hum. Hearing the agonizing cries echoing from inside her closet, Michelle smiles with satisfaction. Her blanket always protects; Blanket is magic.

The following morning dawns, sunlight spilling through the curtains. Sleepy-headed, Michelle skips into the kitchen, her blanket dragging behind her. Greeted with waffles for breakfast, her favorite, she carefully tucks a corner of Blanket into its own chair before drizzling syrup over both of their plates. Between bites, Michelle dabs smears of syrup from the embroidered stars, giggling as if they can lick the sweetness right up. Her father smiles at her as he grabs his cup of coffee, kissing his daughter before heading off to work.

After breakfast, music pours through the living room speakers, and Michelle twirls barefoot across the rug, Blanket swinging through the air like the perfect dance partner. When she finally collapses onto the couch, happily exhausted, her mother calls for her when it is time for errands. Michelle solemnly straps the blanket into the back seat of their SUV, clicking its buckle with a proud little snap.

At the supermarket, she perches in the cart’s child seat, whispering secrets only her blanket knows as they wheel pass stacks of fruits and towers of cereal boxes. After turkey sandwiches for lunch, the afternoon stretches into play. Meeting with her friend Henry at the park, they race up the jungle gym with her blanket, in tow, trailing behind like a cape.

She, Blanket, and Henry are superheroes, off to save the day, as they speed down the slide, roll in the grass, and even tussle with a Golden Retriever to rescue her blanket from its slobbery jaws. By the end of their playdate, they are panting with dirt, sweat, and giggles. Michelle and Henry wave their goodbyes, taking their mothers’ hands. On the ride home, Michelle soundly snores the entire way. By the time they arrive home, her father meets them in the driveway to carry Michelle inside, her blanket clutched to her chest like a shield. She stirs a bit as he lays her on her bed, but never awakes. Taking off her shoes and shorts, he tucks her in.

Noticing her blanket riddled with dirt and the day’s filth, Michelle’s father manages to tug it from Michelle’s tight grip and replace it with a stuffed toy from the shelf. Instinctively, she snuggles with it as her father kisses her on the forehead. Before he leaves the room, he tosses her blanket into the laundry hamper and closes her bedroom door slowly with a soft click.

The night proceeds in peaceful silence until the clock strikes midnight. The nightlights flicker rapidly until they all simultaneously go out. The familiar growl bellows impatiently inside the bowels of the closet. Michelle jumps awake at the sound of the closet door squeaking open. She looks down to find herself holding her favorite purple-and-blue stuffed toy. Panic, she vigorously searches for Blanket and she spots it glowing atop the dirty laundry, far out of her reach across her bedroom. She throws the toy at the closet in frustration and hides under the normal bedcover, trying to steady her breath.

Michelle hears the monster itching closer, its greedy grunts swelling into guttural clicks, the floorboard creaking under its every footstep. Michelle quietly whimpers when a claw punches through the fabric of her bedcovers, talons curling toward her like hooked knives. The covers rip in a slow, tearing scream, threads snapping against Michelle’s hands. Her grip burns with the effort until the monster suddenly yanks—but she yanks back. The sheet stretches, then slaps down as the claw lets go. Michelle exhales sharply, only for her relief to be cut short when something coils around her ankle.

With a violent tug, Michelle is dragged across the mattress, her heels kicking furrows into the bedding before she slams onto the floor so hard that her teeth clank. The rug burns her palms as she scrambles backwards onto the hardwood floor, eyes darting to the shifting shadows in search of her assailant.

Hot, fetid breath suddenly blossoms against her neck. She spins around—and there it is.

A grotesque, insectoid atrocity, unfolding from the darkness. It looms nearly six feet tall, its hunched, chitinous frame clicking with each twitch. A horned, beetle-like head crowned a face split by six bulbous, oil-black eyes that pulse as if alive. Its mouth gapes open in a vertical slit, rows of jagged, uneven teeth, each one slick with slime. Serrated mandibles jutted from its jaws, flexing and snapping with wet, meaty cracks, thick green ooze dribbling down to hiss on the carpet. The stench of rot and sulfur rolled off its body, every breath a damp rattle that made the air feel heavy and wrong. The very sight of it makes the hairs on the Michelle’s body stand.

It snarls viciously and Michelle screams. Acting quickly, she rolls under the bed just as the monster’s claws come down where her head was, splintering the floor with a sharp crunch. The monster growls, stretching its claws after her, one of its razor talons grazing her ankles, drawing blood in a deep gash. Michelle cries out in pain and kicks the monster in the face with her good foot. It gnashes its teeth and disappears into the darkness. Her eyes focus on Blanket burning bright from the laundry basket a few feet away.

Michelle gasps, scrambling for a plan. The bed lurches up in one arm as it weighs nothing, flung against the dresser with a deafening crash. Splinters rain across the room. She seizes the chance and darts between its legs. The monster swivels its head a full ninety degrees to track her, joints creaking like old hinges, before the rest of its body follows in a snapping, segmented turn. Its limbs fold inward unnervingly as it crouches in pursuit, claws clattering against the floor. Michelle is almost to the laundry basket, Blanket pulsating like a lighthouse beacon, when the collar of her nightshirt wrenches tight around her throat.

Lifted off her feet, Michelle kicks wildly, landing a solid heel into its mandible with a crunchy impact. The monster emits a shrill so high pitch that she has to cover her ears, tossing her against the wall. She hits hard, pain blooming in her shoulder, and collapses to the floor. The monster wastes no time, its shadow stretching over Michelle like a shroud as she groans herself to her knees.

With a strong hold on her, it raises Michelle again to eye level. It examines closely with its beady eyes, sniffing her with twitching, moist antennae, dragging its rasping tongue across her cheek. Then it roars in her face, gooey green saliva flinging all over.

Michelle’s tears blur her sight — until her gaze locks on Blanket, glowing in the laundry basket like a tiny, warm sun. Suddenly, her fear turns into courage and Michelle roars back. The monster regards the girl with confused curiosity. It grunts, and she roars again, louder and longer. The illumination beaming from Blanket intensifies with her yell and every unpowered light in the bedroom blaze to their fullest capacities, temporary blinding the monster until all the bulbs pop simultaneously, glass shattering everywhere. The monster drops Michelle to shield its many eyes and, on her hands and knees, she hurries to snatch Blanket and tosses it upward at the creature.

When the lit blanket lands on the monster’s face, the abomination shrieks — a sound like knives scraped against stone. It thrashes violently, slamming against the walls, rattling picture frames, its pincer snapping at the air, as the fabric scorched its flesh. As Michelle stands to her feet, the monster reels toward her, half-blind but still charging.

“Hold it, Blanket!” she cries out.

Obedient, the blanket clings tighter, every thread alive with fierce, radiant strength. It twists around the monster’s mandibles, forcing them shut with a muffled crack. Its claws clawed its own face, green ichor spraying, Blanket’s stitched stars searing through the creature’s exoskeleton. With on final, rattling screech, the abomination collapses. On its back, it convulses once, twice, then goes still, the pungent stench of oozing flesh filling the room.

Proudly, Michelle walks over to casually retrieve her blanket. It is spotless and warm as it slides free of the monster’s corpse. She hugs it just as her parents burst into the room. Her mother screams at the sight of the dead beast and her father holds her back. Michelle looks at them with a thumbs up, flashing them a big smile.

Then suddenly, a chorus of growls, howls, and screeches erupts from the closet’s depths. Michelle’s parents cry out for her, but she only turns back with an iron stare. Blanket clutched tight, Michelle plants her feet, unafraid. From the crack of the closet door bursts a hairy arm slick with bristles, and a tentacle dripping with slime. The stars on Blanket pulse brighter, humming like a heartbeat. Michelle only smiles as the door rattles against the horrors inside.

Together, they are magic.